In the wake of its recent cancelation, the effort to find a new home for Netflix’s rebooted One Day at a Time may run into unexpected difficulty in the form of a restrictive deal put in place by the streaming service for its original programming. The reboot of Norman Lear’s ‘70s sitcom about a single mother, her two children, overbearing mother, and overly familiar apartment superintendent became a critically acclaimed Latinx-centric series under the guidance of co-creators Gloria Calderón Kellett and Mike Royce. The multi-cam sitcom ran for three seasons until Netflix pulled the plug on the series last week, resulting in the now-expected push from fans for other networks to save the show and give it a home elsewhere.
The practice has become commonplace in this day and age, largely — and somewhat ironically — due to Netflix’s track record with picking up canceled TV series and giving them new life on the streaming platform. Series like Lucifer, You, Designated Survivor, Longmire and more have all been given a second chance at life thanks to Netflix’s efforts to bring as many eyeballs to its content as possible. But it seems that when the shoe is on the other foot, and Netflix is the one doing the canceling, things are a little different for the show’s in question.
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As reported by Deadline, the cancelation of One Day at a Time has already, namely, CBS All Access, which looked into bringing the sitcom over to its growing stable of streaming shows, like Star Trek: Discovery, The Good Fight, and the upcoming reboot of The Twilight Zone. That interest was stymied, however, as it was revealed that like while Netflix likes to occasionally offer a lifeline to shows it deems deserving of such an effort, the streaming service actively seeks to limit others from doing the same with its original programming. The restriction reportedly comes from a proviso in most standard deals with the streamer that prevents canceled shows from appearing elsewhere for what is believed to be upwards of two to three years.
It was also noted in Deadline’s reporting that the deal is one of the reasons why Marvel’s Netflix series won’t rebound from their own recent cancelations on the upcoming Disney + platform — at least not right away, anyway. It’s the same scenario for the similarly critically acclaimed American Vandal, which was canceled late in 2018 despite winning a Peabody Award. That series is actually produced by CBS TV, and seemed like a shoo-in for placement on CBS All Access.That won’t be the case now, however, as the original deal with Netflix would apparently prevent such a handover.
What that means for One Day at a Time is likely not good, as it would be all but impossible for the show’s producers to keep the cast and writers on for two or more years until the deal expires. It seems the only hope now is for Netflix to respond to the social media outcry and allow the series to move elsewhere much sooner.
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One Day at a Time seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Deadline
